Posted 23 June 2010

Updated: Prices and Content | PlayStation Plus Explained

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Hi Guys, just wanted to send you a second post on the details of PlayStation Plus and to clear up some of the confusion/answer some of the questions you have raised around the previous post. Apologies for the length but there is a lot to cover!

Ok, here are the basics of the new premium subscription service, PlayStation Plus:

Launching on the 29th June

The current PSN features will remain free. We are still very committed to PSN as a free gaming service and are certainly not planning on reducing this service following the launch of PlayStation Plus.

Plus is an evolving service and the features included at launch will be:

Membership to Plus can be purchased through PlayStation Store on PS3 for either 90 days or a whole year (365 days)

Local prices for membership can be found below, payment is a one off fee for either of the memberships and can be purchased with any of the current Store payment methods – Credit Card or PSN Cards

If you sign up between the 29th June and 3rd Aug for the 1 year subscription then you will also receive a downloadable copy of the original LittleBigPlanet game for PS3, completely free! This is yours to keep and is not tied to the period of subscription

Here are the features in more detail –

Games & Special Offers: As a member you can expect to get your hands on at least 4 games a month at no extra charge. Each month there will be a selection of 1x PSN game, 2x minis and 1x PS One classics. A list of the games available in month 1 and 2 can be found below. You will be able to download these games during the month they are available, until the new selection replaces these.

Once downloaded, these games are yours to keep and play as long as you are a member of PlayStation Plus. If your subscription lapses and then you re-subscribe the games you have already downloaded will reactivate, so you still have access to them. Additionally, if you delete one of these titles from your PS3 but decide you want to get it back then you can re-download from the Plus section of the Store if the games is still there, or, if the game has expired from the Plus section of the Store, then you can simply search for it on the Store and download it again at no extra cost.

Each month there will be 2 dynamic themes, 2 premium avatars and premium game elements/add-ons for you to download and many of these will be exclusive to members only. These are yours to keep forever once you have downloaded them.

Plus members will also be given exclusive PlayStation Store discounts each month that are above and beyond the current Store discounts available to everyone. These discounts will range from 20% – 50% and anything you buy with these is yours to keep and enjoy forever.

Finally, wherever possible we’ll be making sure that members are included in some selected demos and beta trials early, before they go live to everyone, so you can be the one to tell all your mates about the next big game they ‘must’ get.

As I mentioned, just the games themes and avatars are worth over £200* a year and with unrestricted access to 48+ games each year and all the other features, we think this service is great value for money.

Full Game Trial: Each month we will be offering members the chance to download 2 full games, try them out for a period of time (1 hour unless otherwise stated). Then you will have the choice to either buy the game and carry on from where you left off, or delete the game from your hard drive. This is a unique way to trial the full game experience and means you don’t have to be restricted to certain levels/game modes when you test out a game.

The games in full game trail will become available to all Store users to purchase but only Plus members will have the chance to ‘try before you buy’.

The other great thing about this feature is that you can continue from where you were at the end of the trial period if you decide to buy the game. All game saves and trophies earned during the trial will be unlocked and will show up on your trophy list and your trophy level, when you purchase the game. You don’t even have to re-download the game, just purchase and go back to the XMB to access the game.

Automatic Download: Members will be able to set their PS3 to wake up from standby at any time of the day or night, download and install any game updates for the games you have been playing and we will also send you new game demos that will be ready and waiting for you to play when you next use your PS3. System software updates will also download automatically (manual install still required) and then the PS3 will turn itself off again.

Game updates and demos will also automatically install and the next time you turn on your PS3 you will see a brief on screen message letting you know what has been downloaded and updated.

Some other answers to frequently asked questions from the last blog post –

Cross-game chat is not currently included in PlayStation Plus.

You need to be the master account holder on the PS3 and be over 18 to purchase a Plus membership but other accounts on that PS3 will be able to play the games you download for as long as you are a member.

The 4 games you can download each month are yours to keep for as long as you are a member.

Playstation Plus is for PS3 owners as membership can only be purchased on the PS3 Store. However, some of the content – minis and PSOne Classics – available each month will also be playable on your PSP if you have one. Download them on the PS3 and transfer to your PSP, or download directly from the PSP Store or Media Go for PSP.

PlayStation Plus is an evolving service and we have taken on board all your comments from the previous blog post. We will be looking into these and we also welcome any other suggestions you have.

* Approximate value based on average RRP of available content in a one year subscription, excluding discounts, calculated using exchange rates as at May 2010. Actual value may vary. Access to some content, excluding discounted content, terminates at the end of the subscription period.

– What happens if you already own LBP can we change it to another game?– Is the 3.40 fireware patch just in preperation for this? If not what’s in it?– Since we’re the paying members, are you going to listen to us a bit more =P

By the way, I have an important question regarding games included within the subscription…

Here you state that those games will be playable as long as you are suscribed, and that if the subscription expires, you re-subscribe and get them back.

However, in the new PSN Conditions it says that those games will only be playable after re-subscription if this has been done inmediately after expiracy date, stating that if this is done at a later time, you might lose the right to play those games.

If the free games were guaranteed to be ones that only came out that month (therefore meaning i wouldnt have already bought them) I’d be interested but as i already own most of the games I want it seems more likely that I will either be offered games I own (wipeout HD, LBP) or games I don’t want.

I’m sorry, but I’ve got to say that PS+ is such a wasted opportunity. Where are the new services? Cloud support? Where is the XMB integration?

It just seems like PS+ is something where you pay money to get cheaper content, which is *okay*, but doesn’t exactly justify a paying service. Come on Sony, you must know that people prefer Live over PSN for a reason, and this is what you come up with…it’s such a waste.

ball has really really been dropped by sony with this as it clearly alienates the hardcore spenders they say its actually for lol . people who buy loads from store will have already bought all the latest games and older ones so why would they part with 40 a year to get offered a lot less than others .

“A list of the games available in month 1 and 2 can be found below.” Don’t see them.

FWIW, I won’t be buying into this. I’m not going to buy into a rental scheme, where if at some point I feel it isn’t value for money any more, I’ll lose access to my content. Argue all you want for Value For Money, etc.; this whole incentive-riddled launch feels like you already know you’re roping people in on their lack of foresight.

I’ll be extremely disappointed if any of the requested features for the PS3 system become PS+ exclusive (you know what I’m talking about, CGC and more).

For gathering the resources together to plug PS+, well done, but don’t forget about the rest of us. Don’t go all MS on us now.

Not enough for me to bite yet. It’s important for me that I own my content. I dont like the idea of having to keep my subscription up just to keep access to my games and content. I would want to see greater detail in the discounts being offered, and more features added first.

Hi, Plus has a primary focus on PS3 and so at the moment the discounts are on PS3 titles. This is possible though so we will consider this and don’t forget the other games you get each month that can be used on both;-)

you guys should have just added cross chat and less features and you would get more subs in 1 month than you probably will in a year with these features that are pretty useless tbh unless you a casual gamer and we all know casual gamers dont do subscriptions

really? i thought you guys werent making a premium membership until it justified itself with features? fair enough thats alot of ‘free’ content, but the games are out of a selected few?.. most likely ones we wont actually want.

Also what happend to feedback from the PSN survey? we’re seeing none of the stuff that was/is actually wanted..

no token wagering, no cloud storage.. and cross game chat has been asked for for over a year now and probably the most wanted feature, now by the looks of it we’re gonna have to pay for lol.

Il be getting the service, its only 39.99 so for a year you might aswell give it ago hey?

Tho please at some point during the PS3 lifespan INCLUDE CROSS CHAT it soooo annoying using a message pad to talk to your friends…and even tho it was a rumour id be annoyed if it didnt turn up in 3.40 :(

Sounds a promisi service and you’ve talked me into signing up once it goes live :) However… US customers will be getting free access to Qore and i can’t see where the European’s are getting extra content for their subscription to compensate. Could you shed some light on that please?

My only concern is game ownership. £40 a year for thin air, effectively, as if we let our subscription lapse then we lose allt he games.

A neat compromise would be to let us keep the games we received in the last 12 month subscription FOREVER, provided we renew our current subscription before it expires. If we don’t then fair enough, take them away from us.

Either way, I don’t like being forever at the mercy of a subscription to play content, most of which I don’t even know what it is yet. Not one bit. If you gave me an ownership incentive to renew my subscription as opposed to pointing a gun at me in order to keep content I’d paid for, I’d probably pay up.

The way I see it, in its current form PS+ is spending a little to save a lot, which is already worth it in my opinion. Plus, all the money they make from this goes towards making it even better, since Sony have been running PSN without it generating any proper income since 2006/7. It’s about time they got paid, and it’s only going to benefit the users in the long run. Can’t wait to suscribe.